{"id":24395,"date":"2024-01-11T15:24:16","date_gmt":"2024-01-11T15:24:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.yogajournal.com\/?p=116263"},"modified":"2024-01-11T15:24:16","modified_gmt":"2024-01-11T15:24:16","slug":"willem-dafoe-talks-yoga-acting-and-hollywood-stardom","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/2024\/01\/11\/willem-dafoe-talks-yoga-acting-and-hollywood-stardom\/","title":{"rendered":"Willem Dafoe Talks Yoga, Acting, and Hollywood Stardom"},"content":{"rendered":"
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When Willem Dafoe was honored with a Hollywood Star on Tuesday, his acceptance speech included references to his storied career and hinted at lessons he\u2019s learned from his decades-long yoga practice.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love making films, it\u2019s arguably the most collaborative of art forms,\u201d the charismatic actor and ashtanga yogi said. \u201cIt\u2019s wonderful to be part of this community of artists and entertainers. People that, by sharing their experience, imagining others\u2019 perspectives, telling stories, and musing on what is, was, and most importantly could be, they make us feel closer to each other and connect us. I\u2019m glad to be with people like this and hopefully we\u2019re making this a better world somehow.\u201d<\/p>\n

https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=hQ_7Cu9_5mI&t=14s<\/a><\/p>\n

Dafoe, who has appeared in more than 100 movies<\/a>, recently drew a Golden Globes nomination for Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture for his role in Poor Things.<\/em> There\u2019s also speculation that when Oscar nominees are announced on January 23, he\u2019ll pick up his fifth nomination for that role. In addition, he was recently honored with Excellence in Artistry by the Hollywood Creative Alliance at the Astra Film Awards.<\/p>\n

The difficulty of acting, Dafoe explained in a past interview with The New York Times<\/a>, lies largely in understanding one\u2019s relative lack of control and submitting to the collective work rather than considering it \u201cmy work.\u201d He cited his long-standing regular ashtanga yoga practice as one of the secrets to contributing to that acceptance and to navigating everyday life. \u201cIt probably saves me,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Willem
Dafoe brings his trademark humor and charisma to the ceremony celebrating his Hollywood star. (Photo: Amy Sussmann | Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The actor started practicing yoga because, as he told GQ in 2017, \u201cI got old.\u201d Dafoe expounded on that in a video created by the Jivamukti Yoga Center, in which he explained that he initially got into yoga because he was looking for \u201csome kind of physical discipline, sorta a very superficial, narcissistic desire to keep your body fit and keep flexible and keep your instrument tuned as a performer.\u201d<\/p>\n

That changed when he became more familiar with the practice. \u201cIt\u2019s calmed me down,\u201d explained Dafoe in a YouTube video chronicling his reasons for staying with yoga, among them its ability to help him experience \u201cequanimity\u201d and \u201cconcentration\u201d and a talent for \u201cdirecting your mind.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYou start noticing certain patterns and functions of the mind. And then once you start to know your mind, and once you start to practice meditation and contemplation, I think that leads you to look inward, know yourself,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

At 68, Dafoe still practices. \u201cAs I get older, ashtanga is very useful for health and peace of mind, obviously,\u201d he shared with Yoga Journal. \u201cIn certain things, I am not as strong, as flexible as I once was, just superficially. But other things, I am actually better at, you know? Like breathing, for example. I am better in touch with my breath.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although he\u2019s no longer pushing himself so hard. \u201cAshtanga tends to attract type A people!\u201d he quipped. And yet his practice has allowed him to understand the futility of this.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo many of our actions in the world seem to be driven by where are we going,\u201d he shared in the Jivamukti video. \u201cYou can feel your ego at work there. It\u2019s a question of effort and surrender. I think everything in life has to do with how much effort and how much grace, that\u2019s why I respond so much to the asana practice, it\u2019s so experiential.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what life advice he would give young actors, Dafoe offered a yogic-like response from the Astra red carpet. \u201cMy big thing is, don\u2019t do this to get that. Don\u2019t trade things. Be where you are and find pleasure and value in what you are doing. Don\u2019t reach too much outside yourself. Be where you be, enjoy it, learn it, and that will take you to the next step.\u201d<\/p>\n

Poor Things will soon be available for purchase and rent on VOD and will eventually stream on Hulu.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\"Willem<\/figure>\n

Behind the decades of roles and a recent star on the Walk of Fame, there is a regular yoga practice.<\/p>\n

The post Willem Dafoe Talks Yoga, Acting, and Hollywood Stardom<\/a> appeared first on Yoga Journal<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24396,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[37,35,36],"class_list":["post-24395","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ayurveda","tag-blogs","tag-yoga","tag-yogacourseware"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24395","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24395"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24395\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24396"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24395"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24395"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/yogacourseware.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24395"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}